Murdered man's mother worried about Columbus data leak's impact on case

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- Questions are coming in from people across Central Ohio wondering if they are impacted by the massive cyberattack that hit Columbus.

The whistleblower who helped NBC4 Investigates expose the seriousness of the attack, Connor Goodwolf, is not allowed to download or talk about the stolen city data following legal action from the city. Crime victims and their families say the only answers they are getting are from reporting on Goodwolf's research, and they're scared this data breach may make them targets or undo years of work to get justice.

"Right now I just have this sense of being violated, I'm angry obviously, and it's been very triggering for me," said Mothers of Murdered Columbus Children member Katherine Persang.

Persang’s son was killed in 2021. The suspects are still on the run, and she said each day is a fight to get answers.

"We continuously live in this state of limbo," Persang said. "I don't want anything to compromise my son's case whatsoever. All the work that they did do."

Persang is worried this data breach will hurt the years of work for justice for her son. Before the city's lawsuit against Goodwolf, he had just found the police database that included confidential reports for cases, as well as the names of undercover officers. When she asked Columbus police about whether the breach impacted her son's case, they couldn’t give her an answer.

"They don’t even know how deep this breach goes and so that is what was very triggering to me, is the fact that they don’t know," Persang said. 

But Persang’s concerns aren't just over her son’s case. They also extend to her safety.

"In 2023, I had to go and ask that my public information was redacted from my son's incident case because they made it public," Persang said. "I'm trying to protect myself and now, you know, now there's a possibility that it's all back out there."

The private information of many violent crime victims is at risk. Victims and their families said they’re hearing of this risk from NBC4's reporting, not the city. Persang has demanded answers, not just for her, but for everyone impacted.

"Nobody is talking to these victims that have already been affected by the breach. And we're talking about domestic violence victims," Persang said. "We are talking about victims that have been raped. You have totally, totally disrupted their lives and some of them could be in imminent danger. So why aren't we talking about what we're doing for them?"

Persang was hoping to get answers from Goodwolf as he and NBC4 Investigates looked at more data stolen by the ransomware group Rhysida. Now, Persang says she doesn’t know where she can get answers.

After filing the lawsuit against Goodwolf, City Attorney Zach Klein claimed the whistleblower used "a level of sophistication" to get to the stolen data on the dark web and make it readily accessible to media outlets. But alongside accusing the city of violating Goodwolf's First Amendment rights, the Electronic Frontier Foundation disputed Klein's depiction.

“It doesn’t take any sophistication or vast technical knowledge to access that,” said Aaron Mackey, free speech and transparency litigation director for the EFF. “You can actually use a Google search to download a browser called Tor, which stands for ‘the onion router,’ and it allows you to actually access a lot of this material online. So it’s as sophisticated as downloading an app on your phone.”